Mario Has Been Punching Yoshi Since the SNES Days, Nintendo Confirms

It has long been rumored that Mario punches Yoshi in the back of the head in the SNES classic Super Mario Bros. game, Super Mario World, but it has now been 100% confirmed by Nintendo. Mario has been abusing Yoshi for 26 years while many looked away and just flat out assumed that there's no possible way that Super Mario could be such a jerk to his helpful little pal, Yoshi. Nintendo has come out and confirmed that it's all true, every terrible detail, and hopefully the announcement of the abuse will finally get Mario to cease his unruly behavior.

Nintendo has been dropping all kinds of Mario bombshells lately, from the news that Mario has hung up his plumbing uniform years ago to that he runs around topless in the new Super Mario Odyssey with his man nips on full display. It's like we don't even know Mario anymore. During an interview with long-time Super Mario Bros. developers Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino on the Nintendo official website, Hino delivered the unfortunate news. He explains.

"Lots of people think that while Mario is pointing his finger forward, he's saying 'Go,' and Yoshi's tongue comes out...However, the set-up that I drew was that when Mario punches Yoshi in the head, the character's tongue shoots out in surprise...What's more, there's an added 'bop' sound. However, it seemed like people would say 'Poor Yoshi,' so that's why it became that Mario is saying 'Go.'"

Mario has been punching Yoshi in the back of the head to get him to eat enemies for nearly 30 years. What if Yoshi doesn't even really like to eat all of those Goombas and Koopa Troopas? Poor Yoshi has been a binge eating slave for Mario while we all stood back and watched. "He's pointing his finger," we all said, but the truth was far more dark and sinister than we could have imagined.

The interview also touched on some less disturbing news when Takashi Tezuka talked about the origins of Yoshi. As it turns out, Yoshi was originally conceived as a horse back in the days of Super Mario Bros. 3 on the original NES back in 1989. It wasn't until Super Mario World on the SNES started to have a dinosaur-themed world that the choice was made to have Mario abuse a cute little dinosaur rather than a horse. Tezuka had this to say.

"I think [Miyamoto] likes horses...When we were making [Super Mario Bros. 3], he drew a picture of Mario riding a horse and had put it up on wall next to where he sits. When I saw that, I thought, 'I guess he wants Mario to ride something.' So, when we were making Super Mario World, we had this 'dinosaur land' concept, and I had Hino draw reptile type art."

Mario has been abusing Yoshi for long enough and it has to stop, but it's not going to cease any time soon now that the SNES Classic miniature system has brought Super Mario World back into the limelight. Maybe players can avoid using Yoshi in the game as a form of protest. Make Yoshi take a knee while playing Super Mario World on the new Super Nintendo Classic. In the meantime, you can check out the interview with Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino at Nintendo.